Office and Home: Corales, N.M.

Upcoming titles: Our National Parks, with text by Ruth Rudner; Arizona, with text by Lawrence Cheek; and National Parks of New Zealand.

Recent Exhibits: Reed Photo-Art Gallery, Denver; Mountain Light Gallery, Bishop, Calif.; Santa Barbara (Calif.) Museum of Art; Phoenix Art Museum, with Ansel Adams and Jack Dykinga. Sponsored by Arizona Highways, this last exhibit also was shown at the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography and the Museum of Northern Arizona.

Website: muenchphotography.com

A David Muench photograph seems to contain two messages. One comprises the setting, the earthly elements being featured, and the light. Then you are pulled into the scene, invited to feel the grandeur and the detail, and breathe the atmosphere. You are asked to revere the place and hear its message. This is the second communication from the photographer, a sharing of his perception and inspiration.

"What I aim for, I couldn't put it in words for a long time," Muench says with more pragmatism than modesty. "I'd rather speak through images." However, over the course of more than four decades as a working landscape photographer, with thousands of images published in a dizzying array of freelance projects, he has found a language for his inspiration...

On the cover: The narrow walls of a grotto in Utah’s White Canyon are both imposing and inviting to landscape photographer David Muench. “You know you’re going through a labyrinth,” he says.

Cover photo: © David Muench

PhotoMedia thanks all the photographers who generously contributed photography to this issue of the magazine. Other photographers are discussed or quoted in articles throughout the issue.